Pot Town connector rules are out dated.

Pot Town connector rules are out dated.

So lets start with the basics.

1. Connectors: These allow you to teleport to the Over World or other towns (POT, PRT, NPC)
2. Connector can be a Cart, Boat, Balloon or Hatch. What ever type of connector you have in one town has to be the same in another (cart to cart or boat to boat)
3. Connector to over map is locked to map and maybe can't go where you want. (but I have see these move and I would think it easy to add another in town where ever a player likes. While still leaving the original. many towns have 2 as it is a boat and cart.)

4. Connectors to other towns I'm being told: "We keep all non-boat interconnection teleporters (wagons, underground hatches, etc.) in the same central "hub" location. Players who use POTs quickly learn this is where the main interconnection teleporters are located and can easily find their way back to where they came from.

For most towns this is central, or Docks. But i have to ask when you say: " and can easily find their way back to where they came from" Wheres that? back to Novia? because if your saying back to the other town I just came from. I would rather that connectors be where I arrived in town not at the top of some distant abandon mountain. (Arriving at one end of the map but the return cart is on the other end of the map? not a make sense rule.)

When things got started maybe this was a good rule. The main point of the rule is making it easy for a player to find there way out. That is the only point of the rule. But i have to ask are you doing the opposite of making it easier? I believe it's time has come for this rule to be thrown out.


For the biggest towns: Were so spread out we in part will cover/ build our towns in the central areas. (so maybe it doesn't mater as much for large towns.)

For the small towns: This rule goes against the whole point of the rule. I'll concentrate on the newer player. because Older players know how to log to main menu and restart on over map, as well as use recall, teleport to friend and teleport to zone Scrolls.

I'm going to use Jade Mountain as a example it's the smallest size town Holdfast. (There are many smaller towns that are the same way):

When you enter Jade Mountain you arrive at entrance 1 (the town is built by TB1 and the Arrival is set by TB1.) . You'll find a small beautiful town in the mountains and that's it. But is it? Actually Jade Mountain is close enough that it has a connection cart to Storm's Reach (NPC Town). But you would never know because that cart it way up on a hill on the other side of town map unseen/unknown.

How would a new player know it existed? they might run around some through empty woods but most likely would never find the cart to know it exist. Most New Players will only make the mistake of wasting a few hr's running around empty areas of a town once or twice. After that there not going to explore empty areas of POT's.

Small Towns, build there towns at other entrances than just central to get a look they want and leave all the rest of the map unused. There's nothing to hunt, nothing to harvest. So why in all that empty space would you say the cart, balloon or hatch has to go way over here where no one goes or lives to see it. (Side Note: Don't go saying they can use Teleport poles to get around and find them. I still run into players that have been in the game for months and don't even know they exist. Some in town TP poles are of in bad spots to even be seen too.

A towns connector to other towns should be in the town. Not way out on some unseen hillside.



The following are a few example of conflict with the rules:

In Storms Reach the cart to Jade Mountain is not in the central Hub. Its way far from central hub. (how would anyone know it exist? They know because its where they arrive in town.) So right here on the Dev's end is a breaking of the rules.

If i take the cart from Storms Reach to Jade Mountain. I arrive at town boundary 1 (The owner set arrival point.) But theirs no cart here to know how to get back because its up on a abandoned hill that can't be seen. That is harassing to new and existing players. The other carts should be in/around the actual towns where town owners want them.


Maybe there's another set of rule's I don't know about for Nested town Connectors many of them are by the town entrance and not at a Central HUB. (just a few examples)

Magna Planitia : Connector cart to Honor Hold is not at central its at TB1 (didn't follow that rule here or is it just a rule for some.)
Aldwater : Connector to Heartwood and connector to Painted Caves Both not in the central location both at TB1

Many NPC town have nested carts at there main entrance not a central location. Not following a central Hub rule but it makes sense that a connection cart is where you arrive. shame you can't do it in a POT.

This is a dumb rule that makes it harder for players not easier. time for it to go.

 

we have dungeon teleports. I can't imagine town teleporters can be that much more difficult. even if it a single wagon/balloon/boat that pops up a selector to connected towns. adding other entrances/teleporters in the current town would be awesome too.

I'd completely redesign at least one of my town if we had more flexibility here.

 

they can do it all the connectors are placed and movable by them.

But theirs a rule to keep it in a central hub. So players are not hassled or lost. I use to agree with this as things were being built. But with the way things are now and players have recall, T2P and T2Z scrolls. Theirs no way you can hassle other players and prevent them from finding a way out.

But what this rule does prevent is town owners from putting carts in the true centers of there towns as they were built. That makes new players lost and frustrated.

 

So i want to point out I'm not here to bash.

This is to start a POT owner and others, conversation on this rule and dose it make sense at this point in the game.

 

Make the purchase of a POT teleporter part of a special deed, or home (welcome center?). When you place the home, you pick from the list of zones you have available in your teleport to zone, and choose a town. The town owner/stewards when they hop into their town get a message requesting a link - they approve it, and bam, its now in the wagon/balloon/boak link list.

Or maybe 2 linked deeds - row sized/upgradeable to whatever size. You are teleported from one "deed" to the other deed. Think of the dungeon crawls you could have - ruined village home dungeon has been cleared...you now have to go to the next "home dungeon" for the next part.

How about 2 linked arches - similar to Ruined Stone Arch dungeon entrance, linked portals not deed/home dependent. Require xxx space around it to keep someone from walling the front/back. PLaceable on a lot, or placeable in a town.?


I know for a fact, if there were things like that, I would spend WAY too much money linking homes and towns that I go to. Merchant towns could be completely reworked.

 

Thank You @Sannio some of your wording was a little better than mine.

With the tiny town of Jade Mountain all by TB1 the center hubs a long way away.

And (unless theirs a bug) Your off on arrival to the Jade Mountain when using the cart from Storms Reach (tried it 3 times). When you take the cart from Storms reach I arrive at (town owner designated start point) TB1 not central.

So either way, if you came to Jade Mountain (whether by over map or by cart) you either arrive at TB1 and don't see any carts or you arrive at central and don't see a town.


But either way in the end it comes down to money and the rules lol.

 

Its not about the teleporters. Its about towns making sense in there layout.



But that's ok we have good story writers in our group.

Well just put in a story about the crazy local cart driver named Dev.

That for some reason drives his cart to the top of a distant hill,

That's on the other side of a lake,

That can't be see from town,

To give rides to someone. I hope....

 

Mal Hari,

In Jade Mountains, when leaving find the wagon drover called only Nae Budge. He's stubborn and he refuses to bring the wagon any closer to town. He doesn't talk about it much since his youngun, Devon, started riding the wagon with him on the days Dev wasn't busy with his learning or his chores.

Though, Nae did talk about it one night at the Jade Valley Outdoor Pub. A couple months ago he was visiting an old friend who farmed up the valley some distance. I overheard their conversation when I was playing my lute there. Well, I heard some of it anyway.

Turns out Nae Budge was driving his wagon past the lake one night and what he saw rise from the lake outta nowhere shook him to his knees. I could tell cause he turned pasty white even recalling the story to his friend.

I didn't catch the whole thing but you could try asking Nae Budge next time you see him. You might want to ask him about it early in the day after you've arrived because he wont talk about it if he's spooked and he's likely to go missing.

I've lured him out in the past with an ale from Merrik Dragon's Brewery on Jade Island, but I don't know if that would work for everyone. He might be by the wagon. I guess you're just going to have to find the wagon and ask him.

 

On a side note, I think teleporters should work the same ways with interconnections approved by Governors. That can get silly fast, so maybe put a cap on how many interconnections via teleport exist, like to 10, or something.

 

@Sannio, a down the road idea in the interest of reducing your work load and increasing our agency.

The rules you have worked out are very good, but I think every governor has their own best idea for how their town would work.

Pull all the connections from town, and give us a deco item to place on our own.

So, we get a pile of boats, wagons, balloons, and ladders in our Governor inventory.

The governor can access a menu on the item that has a drop down with all the eligible towns a POT is connected to.

For example, my town is too far from everything, I can place a wagon but it doesn't have any connecting towns in the dropdown, so it's useless deco.

If I was still near Resolute, I would place a wagon, and a boat, and another wagon over there, and set each one to Resolute. I can set a balloon, and a wagon, etc for Soryn Fields also.

So we're still limited to our connections, but we place them and move them around ourselves.

Bonus for you: no need to load the Unity maps repeatedly every time something changes or we ask nicely for a wagon to be pushed to the side. I know that can take forever. Instead edit the database entry with the list of towns and you're done. Up front labor, very little after that.

Bonus for us: increased agency and creativity and convenience.



P.S. This lets us put up a "bus" stop in the middle of town, which is actually a pretty good idea as your local wagon doesn't make people walk a mile out of town to load up. They come right to the Post Office!

P.P.S. We already have traveler wagons and balloons and boats. It would be nice to have the ones you use too, but perhaps give our deco the drop down as well.

P.P.P.S. While you're bugging stuff, if the S Mart Factorium (near Solace Bridge) exit hasn't been changed on QA, we're still exiting across the river quite a distance from the town. I did bug it last month. If it's changed, thanks!

 

Interesting…I would have thought for scenes and everything else are used unique IDs like PVE0001 or POT0298 that are normally just replaced by a changeable and more user friendly name (e.g. PVE0001 = “South Drachvald Spur”).
Maybe a way to still make adjustable teleporters possible could be to let the owner of the teleporter select a scenes out of some kind of drop down menu and lock his selection. This would be a one way teleport to the standard entrance of the selected scene.
On creating a new patch (or on loading the scene) there would be a query for each teleporter “If saved destination scene name do not exists (e.g. because of renaming) then teleporter = empty destination and unlocked”
As a server wide testing of teleporters could be time consuming a limitation of placeable teleporters per town sounds reasonable.
And to include NPC and PRT...maybe the devs could place the teleporters there either with random destinations or some kind of voting is available. I guess this can be even done step by step with just a few NPC/PRT each release to minimize the created workload.

Maybe this voting could be even used as some kind of ingame event in settlements (also PoTs)...with quests...that is activated again if the destination scene is not available anymore. E.g. placing a teleporter is creating a small construction area with one NPC. At the NPC you can select the destination you would prefer for this teleporter and by fulfilling his quest you can add more weight to your vote. E.g. delivering material to the construction site, searching for missing blueprints (usable at any teleport construction site and just one collectable blueprint in your inventory possible) in enemy loot,...
The construction of the teleporter needs either 2 weeks or 1000 fulfilled quests. Doing the quest alone would weight your vote as if 1001 avatars had done the same selection. If one of these requirements is reached the NPC disappears and the teleporter with the top voted destination is usable.
At least this event suggestion is maybe just daydreaming but it would add some interaction and direct influence to settlements.

 

So are the teleporters linked to teleporters, or teleporters linked to towns and just zone in near the other teleporter. Wagon, boat, whatever.
If teleporters are linked to teleporters, could something like a 'door set' be sold for dungeons? One in your dungeon, the other in another dungeon then two player dungeons would be linked.

 

In the same line of though, add street_sign used as teleport among a POT, placeable by POT owner for fast traveling. Because why not